Just when I thought that nothing could stop us from a well-deserved vacation, visiting some dear friends in London – a journey we had anticipated for a long time – parts of my body revolted and sent me to hospital on Sato evening.
Diagnosis: a spontaneous venous thrombosis on the left leg, partly inherited from my family, partly due to sítting too much time in front of my computer.
So I spent the best part of the week enjoying this view:
..or taking snapshots like this one:
This is actually where I was waiting for gastroscopy where this woman next to me asked the doctor for colonoscopy, telling him that she had too much anal intercourcse lately. Well….
Staying in hospital is ok – at least you’re provided with free food and I didn’t have to pay for anything. Now compare that with hospitals in Kenya and you know what’s better about Germany. Really, the health care system may be far from perfect, but it is better than in other countries.
Eventually, I was given these tights which are really *tight* but also help putting some external pressure on the veins.
The irony is that they’re selling this colour as flesh tone. It’s the moment where your mind goes: WTF?!?!?! U guys can’t be siriiiaaaas?!
But they are. These tights also available in black or white – and I will order a black pair asap. Will have to wear these for at least 6 months, probably even longer. Yes, I know, many women have been wearing such special tights for the last 30 years or so, but I am a man and just not used to such special underwear. It could be worse.
One reason for blogging all this is to remind you not to spend too much time seated (this also happens during long flights, btw!) – or else a thrombosis is what may follow. They do all kind of tests with you to exclude a tumor (which may be another cause for a thrombosis) and that ain’t nice.
The other reason is that the Angiological department at the Uniklinik Frankfurt shares the same building with the Infectological dept – where all HIV-patients are treated. You end sharing the place with other patients who are about 1/2 of my weight and who probably won’t survive another month. Makes you appreciate life.
Another positive aspect of all this is that your body is checked upside down – so it’s good to know (that) the rest is all well!
Oh shit! Man, I’m sorry about that.
Makes me worry some more in my sitting-job, too.
Sexy nylons, may I ask if you are allowed to take them off when you get laid? If not, how do you explain that to your girl?
The good thing about hospital-food is, you don’t get fat from it.
The bad thing is, they usually wake you up at 6:00 in the morning, and you start the day with a thermometer getting shoved up your ass. You then enjoy a long day full of noisy co-patients, hospital-stench and impatient nurses, which finally ends at around 9:30 p.m. when they switch off the lights and TV (mobiles and laptops are prohibited anyway).
Gute Besserung, JKE!
Haha, thx!
I was discharged today and now have to continue treatment from home. I had my phone with me and also a 3G netbook which enabled me to continue working from bed.
Noisy co-patients: the one to the right was constantly going for a smoke (even though suffering from lung cancer) and the other one of the left bed had an ECG recording device on his arm that had continued alarms throughout the night = no sleep for me, despite the noisy nightclub training in Embu two years ago.
Sorry to hear about your troubles.
While you are enjoying your downtime, some material you may want to pick up and enjoy – Men in tights.
– Steve
No medications just tights? siriiiaaaasly? :)
Get well soon (6 months is not soon though? Pole)
THX!
Medication: 10mg of Arixtra for the treatment of DVT which will hopefully be changed into an oral form as soon as all tests are done.
good to hear u’re getting better again. great legs – what a classic.. but as long as they keep you getting better, well worth the effort .. and u’re right the german HC system ain’t that bad, people just like to complain about things .. like having to share a room (oh so scary) or the tv being annoying … instead for being thankful that their life was just saved and it didn’t cost them 25.000 US$. Hope you back up on those legs real soon.